Customer Reviews

Navman N40i NavPix 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've used it for a couple days now and couldn't be more please. I base my review against my previous GPS, TomTom Navigator 6 for PDA. Compared to It, the navman is much better. The interface is very simple to use (really, if you can't figure this out, you have issues). The maps show great detail and accuracy such as adjacent street names and house/street name of where you're currently driving by. So far, POI are accurate in the WashDC/Arlington/Fairfax area. Calculates/recalculates in a few seconds. Also acquires sat signal in 5 or less seconds of powering on.

It does not have text to speech but it does read out streets that have numbers such as "Route one twenty three" and "exit seventy one ahead". which is great for major streets and highways (tomtom just says exit right in 70yrds).

I like to give props to the Picture feature. Its more useful then what most reviews think. Its not just "a cool addition". For example, Have a traffic accident or on the road and see suspicious vehicle or incidents, just start hitting the camera button and it takes pictures very quickly continuously. Great for police and insurance purposes. Beats most cellphone cameras and is much quicker to use and inconspicuous) Who's gonna argue a pic with GPS coordinates on it! Resolution is good and clear in day and dawn, lens adjusts pretty well at night and to different light types (light bulbs etc).

You can also take a picture to tag the location of your regular digital camera pictures, then use services like Flickr, Mappr etc to have a cool map albums.

Also, navigating by selecting a picture is much easier then selecting it out of your favorites list. Bottom line, the camera is a nifty idea! I could careless to have an MP3 player on it (you prob already own an iPod or player of some sort), dictionary and all the other galore of useless half working features that others have and jack the price up over 500.00. Its a car navigation GPS, not a UMPC!

My only gripe is that the desktop software is currently not "FULLY" compatible with vista. I got it to work after trial/error. You need to uninstall Active Sync (Vista has its own version of this preinstalled). You need it to push updates (check navman site).

Navma, for future - VIDEO! why not? let us pop in a high capacity SD card and film away some nice 640x480 video clips! Cellphones can, you too!

This GPS does the job car navigation wise. Gets you places or out of places in your car, if thats what you need, get this one! If you walk, hike a lot, you're looking at an apple instead of an orange.

Navigate away!

Attractive looking, feature-laden GPS at almost half the price of my Nuvi 360. No Bluetooth, but has a built-in camera for saving favorite locations.

The interface is not as user-friendly as the Nuvi but contains more detail. You can set up multi-stop trips and it shows house numbers while driving down the street.

Also considered the Magellan 2000 (no Canada maps) and TomTom One (pricier, somewhat outdated maps and POIs).

Highly recommended!

I recieved this as a gift and have been using it for the past 2 weeks. I have an Honda Odyssey with Nav built in, so perhaps I'm expecting more than I should from this little system, or perhaps I would want more for $300+.

Pros: provides accurate directions, re-calculates pretty quick after missing a turn, screen can be easily seen in bright light (notice I didn't say read), automatically zooms out when you reach higher speeds, has some neat features like MPH, ETA, portable, battery lasts a few hours, the unit is easy to use/setup, attains GPS within 1 minute (from power on, not power cycle - there is 1 on|off for the unit and another on|off to disconnect the battery entirely. Complete reboot takes 3-4 minutes)

Cons: Screen is too small for fat fingers, street names/driections take too long to focus on|find b/c they are small, street names can clutter screen so it can be hard to read|see upcoming turns, camera is only 1.3M - so don't count on getting any quality pictures other than the 1" on the screen, volume is low - don't plan on listening to directions and having the window down, radio on or kids in the back (it does have an audio out jack), the software that comes with the unit is worthless unless you need to add a map to the system which are already pre-loaded on the unit. It would be nice if you could edit addresses or setup POI via a map software and download it to the unit.

The camera on the system didn't work when i first used it for some reason. Just a black picture on the LCD. I had to power cycle it (cut off the battery via separate on|off switch) to get it to work (perhaps b/c it says 'windows ce core' on the back :)

There has to be something better out there for 300. On a side note, the built in Nav on the Honda/Acura line ups are awesome. Well worth the extra $ IMO.

This GPS is nicely set up and isnt too hard to operate. The bad side is that there is no website support for the US and it has a tracking problem. This could have been the one I had, but when you stop, gps keeps flipping your position around as if you were rotating in a circle. When you take off it has to reacquire your position. This is a problem if you are in an area with a lot of streets where directions happen often. I would recommend getting another gps from another company.

My wife and I were heading to Ireland and wanted an inexpensive car gps to take along. This one appeared to fit the bill, (it was inexpensive and had UK and Ireland maps) so we bought it. We needed it rushed, and the seller did a great job and got it to us. That was when the problems started.

First, it came with US maps.

Second, it was out of service, so we could not do anything about the maps or upgrading the software.

At that time, we contacted the seller, who could not help us get the new maps, so we returned it.

I think if you are selling something as "new", it should not be obsolete, out of service, etc.

I like this unit. For the Navman N40i, this is a good unit it adquires a gps signal within seconds from a cold start, it grabs a satellite faster than my Mio 520 or my Garmin 350, or Navigon, and quickly in a heavily treed areas. I can not believe how quick it adquires for a older unit. The maps are old and so for there are no up dates yet. Once I got use to the menus I found them to be the better of other units. I like how when you find a POI it gives you the option to save, go or view. And recent or favorites when you select one you got full information about the POI (total mailing address with phone No# and longitude and latitude, but you can not search longitude and latitude. And option to save go or view for recent.

Pros -You can pan in 3D or 2D, you can not with a lot of other units (Garmin Navigon), and from 3D to 2D it keeps you in the same direction you are going. If you drive through a tunnel while navigating and lose the signal it goes to the turn directions list. I find it to have one of the easiest and well thought menus. I like the exterior buttons (parking and gas). NavPix is a good feature that works very well, and it works in the holder and can be used in case of a car accident and marks exact location. Can be set to shut off in specified time when not in motion and it will turn on when car is started. Well constructed. Has a remote control that I purchased $32.00 and worth the buy. I paid $155.00 for the N40i total. Screen works well in full sun because it is set back. Tells you what side of the road POI is on. In and out of holder easily.

Good amount of POIs. POI with city search one of the best to me. I did need to read the owners manual. Good battery life.

Cons -Slow rerouting, speaker could be louder. Needs newer maps. Should tell you to turn sooner at times not all times.

I do recommend but because of the cons I give 3 ½ stars.

I've now tried the icn550, replaced by the icn530, and now the n40i. They're all physically similar, with slightly different buttons. Big new hardware feature on the N40 is "navpix" (1.3 mpixel camera to associate a picture with the current GPS fix). Personally, I could not care less about that. What's amazing to me is that the map data around my house got WORSE this year (it's got the 2006 maps). Also, I find the user interface even less intuitive than its predecessor the icn-530. I can say at least that it gets a GPS fix pretty quickly. I had to reach for something nice to say. Go with Lowrance or Garmin or something.

***Update - This Problem is even recognized by the manufacturer

I was impressed at the NavPix technology on reading the description so wanted to give this unit a try even though there is not much review around. When I got the unit everything looked fine and it got the GPS Fix in about 2-3 minutes and even properly located my house. Then tried few POIs and other setting and even drove to an address and it did what it should. Just when I thought this is good buy, problems started.

The next day it just won't Turn On using the Power Switch. Had to every time Switch off the battery and turn on the battery, then it will go through all the initial set up taking 10-20 minutes to Load the maps, get the GPS Fix etc etc. Immediately I asked for a replacement and it came and that Unit was even WORSE, it won't Turn ON AT ALL, even using the Battery Switch. I don't know if it is something with me alone or it happens in most of the units. Customer support won't even answer the phone!I had to return the second unit and get the Money Back!! Planning to with the Nuvi.

I would suggest not to plan on purchasing one and steer way clear of this. But have to agree it was good when it worked, but that is something which did not happen for me all the time!

Can't really rate the product, since it never worked, but I must applaud Amazon.com for the ease of the return.